Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Philosophy and theology have increasingly turned to the problem of the rising numbers of people who live in severe conditions of oppression, people who are surplus to global economic and political orders which the oppressed define as "neoliberal" and "neocolonial."

This work, Political Grace: The Gift of Resistance, is part of that turning, through conversations with those who were and still are living under oppressive conditions, especially in Central America and Mexico, and through conversations with phenomenology, feminist theology, feminist jurisprudence, ethics, and liberation theology.

There is an assertion that grace, and the organization of the "lifeworld" which phenomenologists discuss, act in concert to seek to empower the flourishing of humans to understand and resist the abasing conditions they confront.

What frequently occurs when people living under oppressive conditions try to change their circumstances is a backlash by those who control their political, social and economic conditions. In response, the spirit of grace, as part of the human effort to flourish, aids in the resistance against the denial of this flourishing.

Monday, February 27, 2012

"Everybody knew what she was called, but nobody anywhere knew her name. Disremembered and unaccounted for, she cannot be lost because no one is looking for her, and even if they were, how can they call her if they don't know her name?"

Friday, February 24, 2012

I read, write, create, envision in scattered ways, wrong side up, pacing through tunnels and over bridges that lead to unknown destinies, negotiating slippery rocks in a stream that seems to be rushing by too fast, so fast that I know I should have worn a life-jacket, following a character or an assemblage, asking: "What is it you're conjuring now? If we fall, will it be fatal?"

He’d also unchain the dogs and daily walk with them in the woods, feeling like he set them free, himself free, feeling connected to something along the trails and long-abandoned logging roads that would settle him.

“Free, free, run for the sun. Dogs are gunning it on the hunt. This way, that way, anyway now. Free, free run for the sun.”

#

It wasn't entirely unexpected, a day in that looming winter that etched itself in Malcolm's mind as another defining moment in his life. It had a particular eerie vibration that chilled him, that he could feel sweeping across an ancient upcropping of tree-covered bluestone shale like a wild spirit in the wind. Still it seemed sudden, the sisters sensing it too, electric. They looked up at the sky, low dark gray clouds moving much more swiftly than the gray masses above them. Heralds of foreboding.

Both the sisters and Malcolm heard the vehicle coming up Claw Valley Pike, the tires in the loose gravel and dirt, coming from the direction of the Pennsylvania border. ...

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Intrigued by the development of a relationship between two persons into a persona-as-protagonist plus the use of two protagonists on parallel plot tracks - such as in Jussi Adler-Olsen's "The Keeper of Lost Causes."

Or, somewhat similarly, the use of two protagonists and their parallel plot lines in Stieg Larsson's "Girl With a Dragon Tattoo."

BILLY DAISY - Floating, didn't need a license for the scooter in this state, feels like riding on rubber, frame liquid, flowing, rocking, rolling, what speed, who could tell, so high, shimmer shimmer, up to Cliff's and Samantha's, cooking it, smoking it, out again, book me, fuckers, I'm out again, nobody I am, nobody but the scooter under my legs, swirling. Could see that little lady down in the hollow from the yard where Cliff shot golf balls into the hollow, using an iron, where the hell did he get them from, he called them goof balls, funny man. Little lady on the back porch with a bottle, must be vodka, got to pay her a visit. Place might be warm, this one's cold, electricity water turned off, candles, love the flickering, what they doing now those two. Little lady want a visitor? I'm the one the swat team snared when I tried to kill myself after I scared off my lady friend in that house by the state park, shit, one year is all they took from me, then rehab, what fools, what a joke. Little lady, I got a rap sheet, I'm bad, you want bad?

RHONDA STILLMAN - Calls me her friend, tightwad bitch doesn't pay me enough to clean up all that cat crap, but she's a worry the way she's started carrying on, in a way I got to keep an eye on her, but I got enough troubles, don't need hers, she'll get what she wants, can pay for it, but what neglect, how could she not see that, downsliding like she is.

CLIFF BREADSWORTH -

SAMANTHA JENSON -

NEIGHBORS (to be named) -

SHELLY ROSE - neighbor - Madelaine worries me, no doubt needs groceries, bright lady bright eyes bright humor (is it an act? There's a dark side) - what a mess her place fine furniture, could be elegant, probably was once, wants to know about the revolver in her drawer.

Been awhile since I've communicated via this blog site. Two things I'd like to note:

1. I've now turned to writing, intrigued in some ways by the noir style, but not that exclusively - short stories and a novel.

Though earlier videos are posted here, the blog now will be mostly devoted to what's going on with writing.

2. My video work recently has been strictly experimental, fashioned in what I'm presently calling a video anarchist style for a blog site called the Video Curio Theater - at http://blog.rehberg.net - short video art works.

About Me

I'm a writer, runner, artist, social justice activist; retired as a United Methodist pastor, filmmaker and print journalist. I've got a Ph.D. in philosophy, interpretation and culture from SUNY-Binghamton. I've also been part of or guided social justice delegations to Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba, Chiapas and central Mexico and the Mideast. Much of this work is with Eileen, my creative spouse and partner.. With regard to running, I am a former All-American in track, my best race a 3rd place medal in the 1961 National AAU Championship 600 race at Madison Square Garden in NYC. You may follow me at wildclearing.blogspot.com, at @WesRehberg on Twitter, and on Facebook.